D.C. United welcomed another high-profile European club to the nation's capital on a wet, sultry night at RFK Stadium on Wednesday, but the Black-and-Red were hardly generous hosts as they dismantled a Celtic FC 4-0 in a comprehensive performance from start to finish.
With an eye towards his team's upcoming league matches, Peter Nowak gave usual starters Jaime Moreno, Brian Carroll, Bryan Namoff and Troy Perkins the night off, making way for Santino Quaranta, Ben Olsen, John Wilson and Nick Rimando respectively.
United created the game's first opportunity nine minutes in when Christian Gomez surged towards Celtic's backtracking defense before cutting a diagonal ball into the path of Josh Gros' late run down the left. Gros centered for Quaranta at the far post, but there was no one to finish the tall striker's centering pass and in any case, the assistant referee's late flag signaled offsides on the play.
Gros and Gomez nearly connected again a few minutes later when the Argentinean sent an inswinging cross from the left wing that Gros almost met inside the visitors' six-yard box, only to be denied by the slightest of touches from Hoops center back Gary Caldwell.
Freddy Adu, roaming D.C.'s right flank on this night, conjured a bit of magic in the 21st minute that nearly embarrassed Celtic netminder David Marshall. Receiving the ball from Facundo Erpen in front of the United bench, the 17-year-old shook and shimmied his way past five Celtic players before ripping a low shot with a slight knuckle that caromed off Marshall's arm and spun just wide of goal.
While Celtic showed the rust you'd expect from a side still in the early stages of its preseason, United were growing more and more confident as the match went on, as shown by Gros' shot from distance near the half-hour mark. The Rutgers graduate cut in from the left and whipped a low drive towards the near post, forcing Marshall to scramble to his right and palm the effort away for a corner kick.
United spurned a great chance to grab the lead when Gros blew past Paul Telfer and unleashed a shot that was deflected straight to Alecko Eskandarian at the top of the Celtic box. But with Marshall badly out of position and the goal at his mercy, Eskandarian uncharacteristically missed the target, volleying wide right.
But just when it looked as if the home side's hard work would go unrewarded, Gomez delivered a deadly pass that sprang Adu for the game's first goal. Taking possession near the halfway line, the United No. 10 saw Adu making a slashing diagonal run and cut a through ball into the acres of space behind the defense.
Celtic's back line saw the play developing and stepped forward to catch the teenager offsides, but he had timed his move to perfection and it allowed him to bear down on Marshall with plenty of time and space. Adu made no mistake with his finish, calmly slotting underneath the diving 'keeper to give his side a 1-0 lead just before the break.
The men from Glasgow began the second half with a good deal more urgency than the first, and were it not for a timely intervention by John Wilson, Kenny Miller would have had Rimando at his mercy after taking a lofted ball down with his chest in the United box several minutes in.
But it was the Black-and-Red who struck paydirt next, as second-half sub Jamil Walker surprised Marshall with a well-taken shot to double the hosts' advantage in the 57th minute.
With his back to goal, Walker had tried to play a give-and-go with Olsen as the midfielder faked a shot and raced forward into the Hoops' box, and though Telfer broke up the combination, the ball dribbled right back to Walker and the speedy striker took a touch to his left before drilling a low left-footed shot that caught the Celtic goalkeeper positioned too far from his right post to make it 2-0.
The Hoops were seeing little possession and clearly did not enjoy chasing the ball in the stifling, muggy conditions -- and their growing frustration boiled over in the 65th minute when Miller launched himself at Wilson, scything down the defender with a horrific two-footed challenge that nearly sparked a brawl on the field.
Referee Alex Prus had little choice but to brandish a straight red card at the Scottish international, and Celtic's misery deepened when Bobby Boswell drove a sharp header past Marshall on the ensuing free kick, pushing the score to 3-0 and launching RFK Stadium into full party mode.
Both coaches made a flurry of substitutions that left few of the game's original participants on the field, with United fielding what amounted to their reserve team -- which only added to the fans' delirium when D.C. struck again in the 78th minute, this time off a clever exchange between Andy Metcalf and Matt Nickell.
Metcalf cut in from the right wing and slipped a pass to Nickell that the striker alertly flicked back to him just inside the box, and the University of Memphis product kept a cool head to slip to his left and drive a shot into the side netting for his club's fourth of the evening.
Celtic's Steve McManus narrowly missed a late consolation goal when he headed Telfer's corner just over the crossbar, just one more piece of bad luck for the Bhoys.
Charles Boehm is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
